Ollie Tunmer, Director of Beat Goes On reflects on being part of The Big Gig, Melbourne June 2018

My recent trip to Melbourne could have been a little shaky - I’d been working at a school in South Korea the week prior, then headed back to the UK for the launch of www.sambaoke.com (promo video on the way!), before the 26 hour journey down under.

Despite the slight disorientation, I could feel the warm and energy of the conference delegates from the word go.

One of STOMP’s first big bookings was the 1992 Melbourne Comedy Festival, so it was nice to kick things off here with some body percussion, inspired in no small part by my time in that show. I love how body percussion is initially highly accessible, but then as with any art-form, offers scope for more complex material.

The MF conference delegates proved themselves to be a highly rhythmic and up for it bunch, happy to step well outside of their comfort zones, a useful experience for all teachers!

I then led the first of several Afro Brazilian percussion workshops. Although African drumming is common in Australia, Afro-Brazilian percussion, including samba, is yet to become the staple that it is in UK schools. It was great fun exploring a range of styles from Rio-style ‘samba batucada’ to ‘drum’n’bass’, nodding to the Musical Futures ethos of incorporating students’ own musical preferences into lessons. Delegates seemed to enjoy these sessions and I’m looking forward to returning for a school workshop / PD tour - watch this space!

"Music makes life better" The National Music Education Conference, Bejing

The National Music Education Conference in Bejing ran in partnership with the China Music Instrument Association and was supported by the National Music Education Service Alliance, in collaboration with the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and the Confederation of European Music Industries (CAFIM).

As invited guests of the China Music Instrument Association, Anna and Ken led an introductory informal learning workshops with nearly 100 teachers at the conference, followed by workshops with teachers at Roland Digital Education Centre and with children and their parents at Hua Dong Music City.

Highlights of the trip included some fantastic musical performances showcasing exquisite performances of traditional Chinese music as well as a celebration concert from the Make Music Day China 2018 event that involved over 3000 musical events across China.

We are very much looking forward to returning to China in October for another round of 2-day teacher workshops and to as guests at Music China in Shanghai.

With just 3 weeks to go until Musical Futures teachers from across the world arrive in Melbourne for The Big Gig 2018, the final schedule and details of the fantastic international team of presenters has been announced.

Presenters will be flying in from the UK, Asia, USA and from across Australia and the sessions will explore (in typical Musical Futures style) everything from body percussion and Samba to Electronic Dance Music and Hip Hop. There will also be an opportunity to debate and explore what it means to be a creative music teacher and what it means to 'go beyond the notes' with Mandy Stefanakis, Nick Beach and Tim Patson as guests for our panel session.

MF International Directors Ken and Ian will be in Sydney this week as part of EduTECH 2018 where they will be launching our latest partnership with Soundtrap.

Soundtrap is the first cloud-based audio recording platform to work across all operating systems, enabling users to co-create music anywhere in the world. We are looking forward to exploring how we can integrate Soundtrap with Musical Futures approaches through our forthcoming workshops and at our teacher conference in Melbourne in June where Musical Futures Asia co-ordinator Steve Jackman will be leading workshops exploring Electronic Dance Music through Soundtrap.

As part of the partnership, everyone who attends a Musical Futures International or Australia workshop will be offered a free 3 month trial ofSoundtrap Edu and the opportunity to help us to develop resources and workshops that will enable more students to engage with creative and collaborative approaches to music making via our workshops and Musical Futures teacher communities.

​You can read the full press release below and for more information please email info@musicalfuturesinternational.org

Australian Teachers Get Inspirational Boost from Musical Futures and Soundtrap, a Collaborative, Cloud-based Music Education SolutionPartnership Combines Individualised Learning Approaches and Game-Changing Music Technology to Deliver Student-Centered Classroom Experiences

​EduTech, Sydney, Australia – June 5, 2018 – Announced today in Sydney, Musical Futures Australia, a music education movement reshaping the way students learn and create music, and Soundtrap, the innovative online collaborative music and podcast recording studio, are partnering to deliver collaborative, hands-on musical workshops that will be accessible to teachers in Sydney, Australia and to music educators around the world. It’s a revolutionary approach that provides teachers with new and innovative ways to engage their students in hands-on electronic music as part of their overall curriculum. The partnership officially launches at the EduTech conference scheduled for June 6-8 in Australia.

“We’ve been looking for a number of years for a music technology integration that works best for our workshops. Soundtrap has huge appeal to us because it’s cloud-based and enables the kind of collaborative work we’re already doing,” said Anna Gower, head of Training and Development, Musical Futures International. “We know that kids really engage with music tech, but some teachers do not. Until Soundtrap, we were unable to find a platform that didn’t cost a lot of money, didn’t require a large amount of expertise, and did not result in barriers between the teachers and students.”

The diverse community of students at Doveton P-9 College in Melbourne is finding a common language through Music Futures Australia (MFA). Recognized for its innovative curriculum, Doveton is one of MFA’s 12 Champion Schools. These Champion Schools are developing new ways of teaching children and teachers about music through technology. With the help of Soundtrap and a Roland HS-5 Session Mixer, Doveton’s music students recently created, recorded, and later performed, a song they titled “Memory Lane.” https://www.musicalfuturesaustralia.org/mf-videos.html. The process exposed the students to music composing techniques and processes they would not have experienced otherwise.

“Technology gives us new ways to reach kids where they are. By combining Musical Futures and Soundtrap, the students had this unique opportunity to create something special—a composition that they could take ownership of,” said Jason Holmes, music teacher at Doveton.

Musical Futures equips teachers with the training, support and resources to give students informal, engaging ways to learn music. An international program with global reach, Musical Futures’ Australia affiliate is partnering with Soundtrap to provide workshops to 1,500 educators in Australia and New Zealand. From this base, the solution will be rolled out internationally. The goal is to give kids, mainly in the primary and secondary schools (ages 6-18), individualised ways to experience and create music.

Soundtrap, the first cloud-based audio recording platform to work across iOS, Android, Chromebooks, Linux, Mac and Windows platforms, enables more than 1M users to co-create music, podcasts and other audio projects with others anywhere in the world. The platform is being used in thousands of schools around the world for music, technology, math, science and a host of other core subjects.

Soundtrap is especially suited for today’s mobile-intense generation of students because all projects are saved in a safe, protected environment, and can be accessed at any time, from any device. (See video: https://youtu.be/2ViLQD_2RK4)

Per Emanuelsson, CEO of Soundtrap, commented, “Music technology excites and engages school-age kids, and Soundtrap gives music teachers the ability to truly harness that excitement and make those connections, regardless of their geography or the type of personal device they own. This partnership with Musical Futures shines an even brighter spotlight on Soundtrap’s mission to provide a worldwide learning experience to every student with access to a computer or mobile device.”

About SoundtrapSoundtrap is the first cloud-based audio recording platform to work across all operating systems, enabling users to co-create music anywhere in the world. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company also has an office in Silicon Valley, California, US. Soundtrap provides an easy-to-use music and audio creation platform for all levels of musical interest and abilities, and is being used by the K-12 through higher-education markets. For more information, visit: http://www.soundtrap.com.

About Musical FuturesMusical Futures provides teachers with training, support, networks and resources to deliver practical, engaging, developmental music programs in the classroom. Rather than limiting students to specific musical styles or genres, Musical Futures believes music learning works best when young people are making music based on their musical culture, and when their existing passion for music is reflected and built upon in the classroom.

Musical Futures was recently recognised as one of the leading innovations in global education by HundrED (https://hundred.org/en) and its efforts are supported by a growing bank of research. For more information visit: https://www.musicalfuturesaustralia.org/ or www.musicalfuturesinternational.org

Our Shanghai workshops will explore the introductory approaches of Musical Futures across 2 days and you can read more about the content we have planned for those days byclicking here

Our return to Bangkok will include plenty of new material for teachers who have been to one of our workshops before! So you can choose the option that works for you....

New to Musical Futures? Our 2 day introductory workshop consists of:​Day One : Introduction to Musical Futures the approaches and foundation units of Musical Futures Informal Learning, Find Your Voice, Just Play, Songwriting andDay Two: Getting Further into Musical Futuresis packed full of newcontent including Electronic Dance Music and music tech, Musical Futures Styles, Hooks and riffs (a riff a day), Everyone Can Play, Assessment and planning ​

Been to an international workshop before? Our *new* 2 day workshops will include:

​Day One: Musical Futures RECHARGE which will refresh and enhance your current Musical Futures work with NEW content and resources for informal learning, songwriting, Find Your Voice, Classroom workshopping, Everyone Can Play, and more. ​andDay Two: Getting Further into Musical Futuresis packed full of newcontent including Electronic Dance Music and music tech, Musical Futures Styles, Hooks and riffs (a riff a day), Everyone Can Play, Assessment and planning .

A few years ago, Anna Gower and her students at Monks Walk School in Herts, UK, opened the doors of the music department on a typical Monday to share the realities of embracing Musical Futures across all their lessons. Not a text book or desk in sight, just students, instruments and a willingness to expect the unexpected!

We are pleased to announce that we will be returning to Asia in November 2018 and January 2019 with new 2 day intensive Musical Futures workshops in Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Bangkok. Whether you are new to Musical Futures or you have been to one of our workshops before, there is an option to suit you. ​Please note that our Shanghai workshop is a 2 day introduction to Musical Futures without the recharge options.

And there's more! Book before October and you'll be eligible for our early bird rates.

​New workshop options for 2018-19: choose the workshop program that suits you best!

Can't come to us? We will come to you...

We are also able to offer some in-school consultancy to schools in Hong Kong and KL during our November visits. If you would like more details please drop us an email info@musicalfuturesinternational.org

​On 16th May, music education expert, author and academic Gary Spruce will be leading a webinar for Musical Futures International all about teaching music musically and the connotations of the term ‘pedagogy’ in music education.

If you would like to join us then save the date and time, 16th May, 8.30pm AEST, 11.30am UK and all times in between! ​You can register now by clicking HERE and even if you can’t join us on the day, everyone who registers will be able to access a paper outlining the aims of the webinar and a link to watch the video back afterwards. There will also be an opportunity to discuss any issues arising in our Musical Futures Facebook groupat one of our regular Wednesday chats.

Teaching music musically: what's the problem with pedagogy?

In this post and during the webinar, I want to make the case for ‘pedagogy’ as fundamental to effective music education. I define pedagogy as ‘the theory and practice of teaching’ and that music teaching is at its best where there is a strong relationship between theory (either implicitly or explicitly understood) and practice.

Much of the ambivalence towards ‘pedagogy’ as a concept stems from a suspicion of theory as abstract and disconnected from practice. However, I will argue that all teaching is underpinned by ‘theory’ and that practice represents the working out of theoretical perspectives. The important thing then is that the underpinning theory should be ‘good theory’. For me, good theory is that which provides a framework for music to be taught musically.

To get us started, I put forward as a an example of a ‘good theory’ the principles proposed by Keith Swanwick in his article, , ‘The ‘’good-enough’’ Music Teacher’ (Swanwick, 2008), written for the British Journal of Music Education.Click here to read the article

This article builds on a chapter in his book ‘Teaching Music Musically’ (1999) where he proposes three principles for music education which are applicable for most teachers in whatever setting they are working. These principles are:

Care for music as a vital form of human discourse

Care for the musical discourse of students

Fluency first and last.

The BJME article adds to these ‘awareness of context’ as a fourth principle. However, it is the first three principles that I would like to focus on.

Taken together, the three principles provide a theoretically underpinned practice (a pedagogy) which helps to ensure that music teaching remains musical.

I look forward to a lively and interesting debate not just about this article but about the importance of ‘pedagogy’.

In preparation for the webinar, it would be useful if participants could read the article which can be found here. However in case you do not have time to do this, all who register will be provided with a summary and commentary of the three principles ahead of the session.

References

Swanwick, K. (2008) The ‘Good-enough music teacher’ in British Journal of Music education. 25 (1) pp. 9-22

Swanwick, K. (1999) Teaching Music Musically. London. Routledge.

Gary Spruce was a secondary school music teacher for 17 years before joining the Open University as subject leader for their Music PGCE course. He left the Open University in 1996 and is now a visiting lecturer in music education at Birmingham City University and academic consultant at Trinity College, London. From 2007-2012 he was co-editor of the British Journal of Music Education. He has written and published widely on music education particularly around the areas of teacher education and professional development, music education and social justice, and has presented papers at national and international conferences. He is a practising musician with a particular interest in music theatre.

It was great to be back in Auckland for the second year running, meeting new teachers and running the first of our international 'Recharge' workshops to roll out some of our new approaches and resources to teachers who attended the workshops last year. It was interesting to hear how they had been getting on, to share stories and reflect on experiences with Musical Futures across the last year.

David Price was Project Leader during the development years of Musical Futures. He is a learning futurist and a Senior Associate at the Innovation Unit, in London and author of the best-selling OPEN: How We’ll Work, Live and Learn In The Future about the global shift towards open organisations, and systems of learning (described by Sir Ken Robinson as ‘a revelation’).

David leads organisational, national and international learning projects, solving the problems of employee, student and civic disengagement; maximising our potential to be creative, innovative and fulfilled citizens. He’s also a professional musician and composer having performed all over the world and penned songs for the likes of Marianne Faithful.

​If you’re a music teacher introducing Musical Futures, the chances are that you’ve encountered, at best, some scepticism, and at worst, outright hostility from some of your more traditionally-minded colleagues. As one of the founders of the approach, I’ve seen both - and continue to experience it, as someone who is passionate about bringing more innovation to education.

If you’re that teacher, then this post is by way of saying ‘courage, mon brave’ - the rewards, generally, far outweigh the risks.

To those of us working in education, the culture of innovation lived by Google, 3M and other tech-driven, silicon valley innovators seems both fearless and enviable. Google’s failure rate runs at around 36% - 3M’s is 50%. How many of us would keep our jobs if half of what we tried didn’t work? How many of us are given generous amounts of time to experiment in our practice?

But accountability constraints alone can’t excuse those who want to put the brakes on change. Most educators would acknowledge that, compared to the incredible rate of innovation over the past 150 years in science or industry, things move slowly in education – and it can’t be because we think it’s about as good as it gets.

Music teaching professionals can be some of the most conservative of educators. It’s partly to do with their training (many of them were trained at places solely designed to ‘conserve’ the traditions of the past). It’s also undeniable that, compared to literacy, numeracy and STEM, music is not under the kinds of pressure to improve student performance and subject to the pressures of high-stakes accountability. But, I firmly believe that there are different kinds of levers that we need to pull in music education, and different imperatives to innovate.

The origins of Musical Futures stemmed from a simple question: why is the most popular cultural activity for young people, the least opted for in school? And that alone was sufficient reason to innovate. But since its inception (2003) the whole social learning landscape has been transformed. As educators, we’re now in direct competition with the vast panoply of learning young people access socially and informally. And if we don’t find ways of integrating those informal learning approaches, into the classroom, if we don’t even acknowledge the ways in which young people can gain independence through informality, we’re going to come off second best.

Reasons to be an innovation-blocker

When the Musical Futures model began to draw attention from other countries, I did the politically correct thing by saying that cultural contexts would need different approaches, and that student outcomes would probably be different. But, inside I was thinking, ‘kids are not that different all over the world, so this should work just the same, wherever you are’. The reality has been just that. In many countries, the impact on kids is pretty much the same, so we have to challenge orthodoxy, adopt some of the Google mindset, and keep everything in beta. Along the way you will encounter the nay-sayers and the blockers, although, thankfully, they are diminishing now that the approach has proven itself around the world. They can still make life difficult, however, and they will often put you in an exposed position of challenging ‘how we’ve always done it around here’. Let’s look at the blockers to innovation, and seek to understand the mindset that drives them.

First, there’s the dreaded ‘guinea-pig’ syndrome, where any attempt to try something new is met with ‘so you’re going to use these children as guinea-pigs in your experiment, are you?’ I’m baffled by this reaction (and parents and politicians are equally guilty here). How many medical breakthroughs would we have missed if people had refused to take part in clinical trials? More accurately, it’s not the patients who are refusing the clinical trial. Kids generally enjoy being part of a new initiative. It’s the self-appointed guardians of their interests that resist.

Second, there’s the ‘not-invented here-syndrome’ . Most of the truly exciting innovations in education are trialled on the educational equivalent of the ‘terminally ill’: the students for whom nothing seems to be working. But the treatment would work just as well on other students - yes, even the so-called gifted and talented. So, you’re allowed to experiment, but leave the high performers alone.

Then there are the ‘innovation gaps’ that prevent change. Sometimes they’re structural, other times, cultural: the constraints of disciplinary silos, or defending ’professional standards’. Most education innovations - as with Musical Futures - originate externally so it’s understandable that some music specialists would view attempts to change their established ways as implied criticism. Some innovation gaps are managerial or personal – CEOs of innovative companies spend twice as much time personally involved in innovation, than their counterparts in less innovative companies, and the same can be true in education. With innovation you often have to model the change you wish to see, and that can be a scary proposition for middle and senior leaders. So, they choose to stay in their comfort zone.

Understanding the motivations of innovation blockers is helpful, but don’t let it become paralysing or, worse, infectious. In recent years, we’ve rightly become suspicious of the ‘echo chamber’ effects of social media, but when you’re a lone innovator (as many Musical Futures teachers are) tapping into the incredible network of like-minded professionals can be hugely affirming. One of MF’s great achievements is the creation of a self-supporting network, so make the most of it.

Publish then edit

Innovation in the knowledge economy has flipped 180 degrees. It used to be that new ideas had to be carefully refined before being made public - the process was ‘edit, then publish’. Not many are aware of Wikipedia’s predecessor - it was called ‘Nupedia’ and every article had to be peer-reviewed by a panel of (paid) academic experts. It took years before there were more than a couple of dozen articles reaching the global audience. Then Wikipedia reversed that process, deciding to ‘publish, then edit’, and knowledge was democratised overnight. I believe that flipped mindset - put your ideas out there, and let your peers improve them - is needed if education is to meet the demand for transformation in a VUCA (volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous) world.

Which is where Google come in. They’ve created a culture whereby ‘everything is in beta’: ideas, projects, and products are never ‘finished’. Instead they’re reviewed, critiqued, amended and improved. Continuously. Publicly. The point at which their ideas embark on a very public quality improvement cycle gets earlier and earlier. They do so because they believe that the more eyes, and hands, are involved, the quicker it gets to the point of acceptance by the public. People engaged in the process accept that mistakes will happen, bugs, crashes are inevitable, but it’s actually quite empowering to be a part of that improvement process.

Google’s founding ethics were:

make mistakes well

be honest

be transparent

collaborate

remember life is a beta project too

...and there’s much we can learn from that.

I write this after running a training session for teachers in Sydney. When I asked a young teacher how she would design an assessment mechanism that would value the importance of collaboration, she looked at me with a look I can only describe as terror-stricken: “But it’s not my job to set assessment strategies”, she said. This is how far we have removed the responsibility for the design of learning from teachers. But the pendulum is starting to swing back in the other direction, and increasingly teachers are reclaiming their professional autonomy.

Accountability frameworks don’t recognise innovation as a yardstick to be measured. So, education systems tend to value compliance , conformity, even complacency, above experimentation. But, to simply continue teaching the way that we ourselves were taught – when the world is changing so quickly – is to be immobilized by fear. If you’re not innovating, if you’re not constantly challenging yourself to create new learning experiences for your students, then you’re not doing your job properly.

It was great to welcome teachers from across Victoria to the first of our workshops to launch a new pilot with Trinity College London this week at Footscray West Primary School in Melbourne.

In 2018 Trinity College London and Musical Futures Australia will be working in partnership to develop new resources and approaches for music learning, bringing together teachers from the Musical Futures Australia communities with the aim of engaging more students with music for longer. The two organisations share a deep commitment to ensuring that musical learning is always a powerful and personal experience for young people. Through Musical Futures’ focus on pupil agency in music teaching and learning, and Trinity’s commitment to nourishing young people’s musical identities through creative and personalised musical assessment opportunities, the project aims to explore what happens when informal learning and examinations meet in the classroom – and what this can offer young people and their teachers.During the course of the next year the two organisations will be working together and with teachers and students across Australia. Integrating Musical Futures' tried and tested pedagogical practices and approaches to informal learning, with Trinity’s exciting new Rock & Pop 2018 syllabus songs and award-winning practice app, Play Trinity Rock & Pop, teachers and students will be immersed in creative live and digital musical experiences.The partnership aims to encourage the development of a broad range of musical skills and understanding, which can be celebrated through the assessment of their musical progression against Trinity’s robust assessment framework.

We look forward to following our pilot teachers as they start to explore the new Rock & Pop 2018 materials with their classes.

What do you get when you put a group of music teachers from America, Australia, the UK, Brazil, Scotland, Kazakhstan, Trinidad and Tobago and Malaysia in a Mexican restaurant? Well it's Musical Futures China of course! Massive thanks to Russell and the team at Xiamen International School for having us for 2 fantastic days of workshops.

We spent 3 fun-packed days working with students at GEMS World Academy Singapore to prepare for performances at Arts Week. Working with grades 2-7 we explored a huge range of music, performing, singing and composing. Many thanks to Daniela, Tracy, Chris and staff for making us so welcome!

Our January workshops began with 2 days of workshops at Nexus International School Singapore, hosted by Clare Lambert and her team. It was great to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Thanks so much to everyone who took part!

Our Talk less Play More in 2018 campaign has been running now for a month and it has been great to see posts sharing video and photos of music making in classrooms across social media. have a look at the #talklessplaymore hashtag on Twitter or Instagram to get a flavour of what has been shared. Our Musical Futures Australia and Canada chat groups have been discussing what #talklessplaymore looks and sounds like in practice and in particular we love this comment from primary teacher Michelle Lewis in Adelaide;

”Since #talklessplaymore I have started my lessons by not giving them a 20 minute lecture to start them off (I like to talk!) but instead I have left any instructions they need on the screen so they just walk in, read then start! It has been awesome and avoided a lot of behavioural problems from kids who don’t like to sit and listen

They come to me if they want more info but most of the time they help each other and I just hover and advise. I’ve definitely found that they are much more able than I thought they were!!”

The campaign has several aims.

It grew from some work we did recently in China with teachers with whom we shared no spoken language at all. It challenged us as trainers and teachers - because we couldn’t talk we had to communicate our aims and learning points through playing. This was a reminder of how powerful it is to learn through music making, experiential and student led which has always been at the heart of Musical Futures.

Musical Futures is about understanding the variety of different ways to learn music and helping teachers to think about this and how that might change the way they work. Being aware that how we learned as teachers may not be the only or best way to teach students is a key part of our practical workshops where teachers come along and experience some of the pedagogy from the position of the learner. This means playing, singing, working together and then the chance to reflect on how they might use these approaches back in the classroom.

We want to stay close to the pedagogies that are important to Musical Futures, to recognise the new research into popular music education that continues to be shared and to encourage teachers to think about how and why they teach music.

It is important that Musical Futures doesn’t lose the richness of our Take, Use, Innovate, Share ethos so we want to refocus on what’s important- the music students make in the classroom.

We know teachers and schools are a little more open now to social media.

So we would love to hear music from classrooms round the world, whether you use Musical Futures or not to nurture that global community of teachers and educators who have come together around Musical Futures and continue to support the organisation to keep fresh and original whilst staying true to the roots that it has grown from across the last 10 or so years.

Will you pledge to #talklessplaymore in your music lessons this year?

Our #talklessplaymore campaign has been inspired by the willingness of Musical Futures teachers to share their experiences, both formative and the performances that are showcased during lessons and in concerts across the world.

We want to amplify the music that matters to our students by celebrating music lessons that start with the music and build learning from there.

Since its inception, Musical Futures has sought to engage with teachers in classrooms choosing to learn from and respond to what was happening in the classroom whilst growing a community of teachers who were willing to share and reflect honestly on their own practice and the responses and feedback from their students.

So as more teachers got on board with the take, use, innovate and share ethos that has always been an essential part of what Musical Futures is, classroom practice has helped to shape what started out as a 2 year research project into one of the leading global education initiatives of its time.

Whether you use Musical Futures or not, we would love to hear what your students are performing and creating in your classroom this year.

Here's how to get involved:

1) Register to join Musical Futures and you will be sent our comprehensive Musical Futures teacher resource pack2) Make sure you have permissions in place to share student work via social media, within your own school policy3) Use #talklessplaymore on any posts that you make and share your video or audio recordings on any of the following channels:

I work at a small international school of about 450 kids. We do the IPC In primary, KS3, IGCSE and IB and our students come mostly from Korea and Vietnam.

Playing instruments in this region of the world is supported by most parents in some cases very strongly. I have students in year 12 who are working on concertos for their instruments. The downside however is that after a certain period many end up going to business schools and never touching an instrument again.

Music and Drama were 1 subject before I arrived and I have been slowly building up the KS3 curriculum for music. When I worked in the UK I found the schemes of work very enriching and interesting but the time frame to deliver them was a little unrealistic. In 6 lessons I was supposed to teach students about blues and jazz and then move on.

In the international school setting I have no Ofsted to worry about so I can take my time. For example I have just spent an entire term with year 8 doing blues and Jazz. They can improvise confidently and they can hear the changes very well and they composed their own blues lyrics.

With year 9 I also spent a whole term doing music for films. The quality of the work is so much better when we have time to feedback and make changes a few times.

I will be head of creative and performing arts next year which I am really excited about. One of my curiosities will be to look at more Musical Futures in KS3 and also to see whether there are similar approaches to Musical Futures in design, visual arts and theatre. I’m a strong advocate for cultivating informal learning. When designed well, informal learning leads to lifelong learning which is more than a buzzword in international education, it’s what students need in order to adapt in the 21st century information-frenzied environment.

Felipe Nurmi is Secondary Music, Global Perspectives and Student Voice Co-ordinator at Renaissance International School in Vietnam.

One of the true core elements of any musical experience, of course, is the music. But what place does 'the music' occupy in music education and more specifically how music is taught and learned?

One thing I have always wondered as a teacher is whether it is possible to teach music only through music making? What if you couldn't lecture or explain and there were no power points or worksheets to support? What if we really did talk less and play more in music lessons? How might practice need to change?

In October 2017, as guests of The China Musical Instrument Association, Best Friends Music and Culture and Dalian Fuyin Music I was part of the Musical Futures International team delivering workshops to teachers in China. The delegates were instrumental teachers, some were working in retail stores in Shanghai and others were teachers from a music school in Dalian with a focus on Rock and Pop teaching to individuals. Most had little or no experience of playing or teaching in groups.

We ran 4 workshops with 3 different groups, each with around 30-35 participants. We had a few translated materials, a translator (who was not a musician!) and perhaps one or two people out of each with some understanding of English (bearing in mind that understanding the words didn't always translate into understanding the concepts and meaning behind those words).

To make things harder, the generally understood non verbal gestures or assumed cultural understanding around music teaching and music making that I so rely on weren't there either.

For this reason, China felt like the most 'foreign' place I have been to. And I had a job to do without any of the tools that have become such a key part of how I teach.

I had always wondered, is it really possible to communicate both musical skills and understanding of key concepts and approaches when the language, experiential and cultural divide is so wide?

How would I need to flex and respond, adapt my approach to keep everyone engaged, make sure they understood what to do, get them playing instruments they had never played in ways they had never played music before and communicate the key messages of the workshop-all things I do all the time, yet always with the safety net of being able to stop, explain and move on.

The critical moment came during the 4th of the 4 workshops. Suddenly there was a shift in the room and we all clicked discernibly into mutual understanding.

It happened while we were playing.

All we had in common was the music and all of the learning had to start from that mutual common ground we felt as we played together. Then by stripping back any explanation or teaching points to the simplest key points through the interpreter we found our rhythm together.

It wasn't about skills and it wasn't about knowledge or assessment or selling a resource. It was about making a perceptible shift together towards something. It was amazing. It truly felt that we were 'starting from the music' and it happened because the default tools of my trade weren't there to get in the way of that.

From this experience came 2 new key areas for Musical Futures International to consider in relation to the teacher development work that the organisation delivers across the world.

"There are many different ways to learn music.
We help teachers to think differently about how and why they teach it."

And a few more general questions:

1. When we say start with the music, which music? Music they choose or music that is chosen for them? Music that teaches something or music that is enjoyed purely for the experience? 'My music', 'your music' or 'our music'? Where in this conundrum does the notion of a 'broad and balanced' curriculum fit?

2. What skills, knowledge, experience, confidence and support might teachers need to deliver music teaching that is solely based on 'the music'?​3. Finally, what might the benefits be for teachers and students to learn music in this way?In the absence of any video of that key moment (because I was too busy doing it to film it!), there is a playlist of little moments captured throughout the trip.

​To finish, I have chosen a couple of photos that sum up the experience for me.

This teacher caught my attention throughout the workshops because I could see on his face everything from total bafflement when he tried to play ukulele for the first time to that lightbulb moment of shared understanding. We couldn't discuss it, talk it over, I have no idea how he felt after the workshops, I don't know his name.
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But I will always remember his journey across the 2 days that we worked together and I wonder if he felt the same as me in that moment where we realised that playing, exploring, creating and 'doing' music truly does bring people together.

Anna Gower worked for over 18 years as a classroom music teacher, Advanced Skills Teacher, Head of Department and Head of Community Music linking primary and secondary students and teachers through music projects and events.

As a freelance music education consultant and in various roles for Musical Futures UK, Anna has delivered keynote presentations, workshops and supported the work of many organisations including Music Mark, ISME OMEA, SAME, Little Kids Rock and The BBC as well as working with Music Education Hubs across the UK.

Anna's most recent role before joining the team at Trinity College London, where she now works as Lead Academic-Music, Europe, was as Head of Training for Musical Futures UK.

We all know how much many of our learners love hip hop music. But the challenges around subject content, lyrics and the social connotations of the genre can be difficult to overcome in the classroom. So it's great that DJ Fame and our Little Kids Rock pal Coach Kenrick have got together to create a playlist of 36 "classroom friendly" hip hop songs.

1.The hip hop song choices were based on content as well as language, however we strongly suggest that you listen through for age appropriateness in regards to subject matter.

Example: Talib Kweli's track "Get By" is a great track that speaks on the struggle of his people's socioeconomic status..great for middle to high schoolers, but might go over the heads of students from K to 3rd Grade

2. A good majority of this playlist may be considered by some as "old school rap/hiphop" however the music grooves, rhythm and writing is still present in the hip hop of today

3. The songs are in one long mix 1hr 26 min non stop but I have noted the time codes and artist info so you can download and edit as needed​4. Leave your feedback and enjoy!!!

Musical Futures International have been working with individual schools and teachers to support them to embed Musical Futures across their practice.

The recent workshops at Bromsgrove International School, Thailand included "Everyone Can Play Ukulele" with Year 2, "Groove Your Classroom" and song-writing with Year 9, "Just Play!" with Year 5, "Find Your Voice" with Year 6 and "Informal Learning" with Year 8.

Massive thanks to Jeremy, James, Alice and all the staff and students who made us so welcome!

Some video from our day of Musical Futures classes!

Photos of the day as it happened!

Delegates from more than 10 countries flew in to join Ken, Anna and our MF Asia co-ordinator Steve Jackman at Shrewsbury International School, Bangkok for our workshops in November 2017. A real highlight was watching Steve teach a lesson using Just Playto his year 5, with amazing progress made in just 1 hour! We also enjoyed creating our own large group composition based on a groove from the song Africa! The video shows teachers stepping up to help us build the piece together.

It was great to lead 2 days of workshops hosted at Dubai College in November 2017. With teachers joining us from across the UAE and also flying in from from India and South Africa, we had 2 days of great music making and making new friends. Huge thanks to MF Champion Alan Crawfordfor organising the event.

A highlight for us was this fantastic Find Your Voice session which really showcased the amazing singers amongst our delegates.

The Musical Futures International team are just back from our visit to China where it was a privilege to be there as guests of the China Musical Instrument Association, Best Friends Music and Culture and Dalian Fuyin Music. Supported by The NAMM Foundation, we worked with around 70 fantastic teachers in Shanghai and Dalian.

We mostly communicated through making music, just a few translated Musical Futures slides and a little help from a translator to assist with some of the directions. So we learned music through music!

One principle central to Musical Futures is to talk less, play more and we certainly put that into practice with some great musical outcomes and proof that Musical Futures really is transferable regardless of context.

A BIG thanks to the CMIA, NAMM Foundation, Best Friends Music in Shanghai and Dalian Fuyin Music in Dalian and all the teachers we met and worked with.

It's a huge accolade for people like David Price, Lucy Green*, Abigail D'Amore, Anna Gower (and others) who were instrumental in creating, developing and sustaining Musical Futures, bringing to life an important piece of research as a tangible and effective approach to the learning and teaching of music in schools.

Musical Futures has grown and developed across the last decade first in the UK, then Australia, Canada and now internationally in more than 71 countries worldwide.

We also recognise the leadership of Ian Harvey and Ken Owen, Directors of Musical Futures Australia now working to expand the reach of Musical Futures into Asia, The Middle East and beyond, keeping the approaches fresh, relevant and true to the core values of Musical Futures. They are supported by a rapidly expanding network of Champion Teachers and Champion Schools helping to shape the development of new models, materials and approaches from within their classrooms.

Of course this kind of recognition wouldn't have happened if Musical Futures remained just a good idea on paper. It’s the practical application and refinement of the MF approach in schools and by teachers including well over 1,000 Australian teachers and more recently the growth of our international communities across Canada, New Zealand, The Middle East and Asia that have helped Musical Futures to earn this recognition.

So congratulations to all our Musical Futures teachers and schools who have joined our Take, Use, Innovate, Share approach to music education by attending workshops, sharing ideas and making new friends in one of the manyinternational teacher communities that have developed through a shared aim to provide students with relevant and engaging musical experiences and opportunities in schools.

We rely on teachers to continue to challenge us to keep things moving forward in rapidly changing times and to keep real world, student-centred learning and high quality teacher professional development at the heart of the global development of Musical Futures.